From Local Startup Founder to Nationwide Connector
Last week, Palm Beach Tech member and local startup, Premier Virtual, signed a contract with CareerSource Florida who enables the local entities to provide needed job placement services across the state.
“Providing a virtual career fair platform to the CareerSource Florida network statewide eliminates geographical barriers and enables better accessibility to events for both career seekers and employers,” writes Andrew Collins, COO of CareerSource Florida. “Additionally, a single platform used by all local workforce development boards provides the opportunity for statewide outreach and hiring events.”
U.S. Army Veteran and small town Wisconsin guy, Steve Edwards, is the Co-Founder & Managing Partner of Premier Virtual. He moved to South Florida where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Florida Atlantic University. After getting into sales and running a successful job fair company for over seven years, Steve noticed changes in hiring practices within large organizations.
In 2018, Palm Beach Tech’s VP of Development, Nikki Cabus, met Steve at a local event where Steve discussed his ideas and plans for Premier Virtual, a virtual career fair platform. In November 2019, she was a guest judge for a 1909 Pitch Competition which included Steve where he was in the pitch competition because he took part in 1909’s, Startup Spark program, a mini accelerator hosted in Boynton Beach. 1909’s Executive Director Shana Ostrovtiz, also connected him to mentors through the program that have helped him refine his pitch deck and connected him to Kevin Cox at FAU for the Veterans Program. He also won the Veteran’s Expo Pitch Competition.
His company was just starting to get off the ground. He was a great presenter, truly believed in his service, and understood his market, but there were still lots of questions from the audience about whether people really were ready to move virtual. He was one of the 6 finalists to make it to the final pitch competition.
“My biggest obstacles were getting people to believe that virtual career fairs could work. I had a lot of people tell me I was wasting my time and money on building the software,” said Steve. He was one of the 6 finalists to make it to the final pitch competition.
Then COVID hit.
Over the past year, Steve put his blood, sweat, and tears into building a virtual platform that unknowingly then would save many unemployed professionals from these current uncertain times during the pandemic. Today, Premier Virtual is actively one of the fastest growing startups within our South Florida Tech Association.
His wife and two young boys is what encourages Steve to get up early and work hard. Building a virtual world that connects the right candidates and companies is what drives him to get the job done.
From Tech Associations to Workforce/CareerSource Organizations to Colleges and individual companies, Steve has landed gigs with organizations throughout the country including Workforce Texas, Baltimore Public School District, Kentucky Dept. of Education, Maryland Dept. of Labor/Veteran Program and Maryland National Guard and more.
He was also accepted into FAU Tech Runway’s Venture Class 8. Rhys L. Williams, Managing Director of FAU Tech Runway, says that he is “confident that this Venture Class will leave its mark as South Florida’s next generation of global entrepreneurs.” We tend to agree.
Bravo Steve Edwards!
